Monthly Archives: April 2016

Source: This photo was generously donated by Greg Gillespie, owner of Port Richmond Books. Frances Summer Janney was born on Oct 4, 1866 in Burlington County, NJ. She was the youngest of two daughters born to Dr Joshua Janney and Amanda Eastburn. Joshua was educated at Ohio University’s Starling Medical College (1865) and had practices […]

I recently saw the movie Suffragette and while I did enjoy it and applaud the important story it is telling I couldn’t help but think that I wanted to write about some of the non-violent members of the women’s suffrage movement. This idea crystallised when I talked to a few people and realised that even the […]

By Olive Morrin, Special Collections & Archives Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington died on the 20th April 1946 and this year marks the 70th anniversary of her death. She was born in Kanturk, Co. Cork but the family moved to Drumcondra, Dublin in 1887 and Hanna attended the Dominican Convent in Eccles Street. She was a bright student […]

Surprise: to strike or occur to with a sudden feeling of wonder or astonishment, as through unexpectedness.

Shock: a sudden or violent disturbance of the mind, emotions, or sensibilities.

Suspense: a state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitement, as in awaiting a decision or outcome, usually accompanied by a degree of apprehension or anxiety.

All three definitions are from Dictionary.com

Shocked and surprised

I am currently writing a short story as a break from editing. It is a horror story, and so I want to evoke suspense, surprise and shock in my audience as the basic emotional responses. These three emotions are related, but shouldn’t be confused. They do have very different implications when used in the horror genre.

Surprise:

Dear me! A spider!

Surprise can be a positive emotion as well as a negative one. It results from something unexpected happening, be it a birthday present or a cockroach crawling out from under the bath. What flavours the surprise is its origin, and the response can vary from person to person, in that what surprises one person may be a terrible shock to another.

Shock:

Just saw the new puppy… it is a Wolfhound!

Shock can be both an emotional or a psychological response. It is a stronger emotion than surprise, and generally has a more negative overtone. Hearing about the death of a beloved family member is a shock, not a surprise. Shock is not the same thing as ‘shocking’; a glimpse of stocking might be shocking, but it won’t create the same dramatic response as shock, with the sudden chills and dangerous change in blood pressure. It takes much longer to recover from a shock than it does from a surprise.

Suspense:

Did I hear a growl?

Suspense can be summed up with that old saying ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’. Suspense is the backbone of the horror genre; it is created by the overwhelming tension when waiting for the knife to stab or the monster to move out of the shadows. Often, your audience can create worse scenarios in their minds than if you were to give them the full details of what is happening and what the villain looks like.

Of course, the horror genre is built around the actual events like gore and violence, and a good slashfest is horrific. But by building the tension first, the release is much stronger. Make your audience anticipate the worst, and then shock and surprise them with the unexpected monster. Horrible, ghastly, and scary …

It is convention season again. Time to rummage through the costume cupboard to rejuvenate and re-accessorise a costume. It’s the usual story: I was going to make a new costume for Oz Comic Con. Honest. I even made a new casual steampunk skirt back in December. I had intended to make a matching under-the-bust corset. Hmm. That is still… On The Trials of Convention Costuming was originally published on karen j carlisle

The Misadventures of Martin Hathaway is a steampunk fantasy with wit to spare. Not only is Glen’s writing clever and fast-paced, her characters are unique and loveable. While Martin Hathaway is an endearingly brave but bumbling hero, Captain Daisy Fitzgerald McNamara is probably the most self-assured female protagonist I’ve ever encountered. And though it’s no […]

Hurrah – theatre impresario Henry Gordon Jago and pathologist Professor George Litefoot, those two fruity Victorian investigators created by Robert Holmes and played to perfection by Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter, are back this month for their eleventh series! The CD/download box set features as always a quartet of hour-long audio adventures, courtesy of those […]